Hello CF.com forum, it’s been a little while…
I’ve been busy with a couple new ventures that take up a majority of my time, so I’ll fill you in with what I’ve been up to lately…
1.) Graduated from Cal Poly-SLO with a B.S. Degree in Exercise Science in June, 2010.
2.) Sat (and passed) for CSCS in July, 2010.
3.) Formed LLC and was approved from state of CA.
3.) Moved back to Northern California in August, 2010.
4.) Signed lease for 1,176 sq ft warehouse space in Late September, 2010.
5.) Got keys to warehouse space October 1st, 2010, biz license approved, zoning permits cleared, all other legal/back-end/paperwork boring stuff taken care of.
6.) Opened doors to my new strength & conditioning business a couple weeks later!!
From 1 athlete in October of 2010, to close to 25 now, it gets better and better every month. I’ve wanted to do this for quite sometime and through a ton of hard work and persistence/patience/handling adversity, I was able to finally make it happen.
Most of what I have was acquired from either craigslist or eBay; some homemade (sandbags, etc), some new (gifts, online vendors). Had to literally “piece” it together but it’s coming along awesome!
I am a 1-man show for now; I just turned 25 years old and doing what most of my peers from school are not: actually working in their field of study and actually enjoying it!
I do know for sure that Charlie significantly impacted the way I train and the way I train my athletes and always will. This is really where I began the learning process. No amount of schoolwork could have come close to the education one can find in this forum if they search hard enough.
Also, I felt a little “lost” and still had the competitive spirit in me, but football and track are no longer in the cards for me (except the annual Alumni full contact football rival game, coming back in November ). This left me needing something to train for. I’ve always loved the Olympic Lifts but never really have been really coached up in how to do the full lifts properly. Most of what I knew, technique-wise, was from observing many videos, reading articles/books, and practicing them over and over with what I thought was correct.
I have joined up with a local weightlifting club (40 minutes away) and train twice a week in the mornings. My goal is to compete in my first Weightlifting meet this summer in the 85kg weight class; I currently weigh about 190-191 lbs and am fairly lean… In only 3 weeks of training for the lifts, I feel better than I have in a long time and I definitely am feeling very like an athlete again.
My lifts continue to go up and my goal is to clean and jerk 125kg (275 lbs.) and snatch 91kg (200 lbs.) this year, at the same bodyweight. I think it’s doable, I have outstanding coaching and a positive mindset about it. It’s very refreshing training for something new.
I’ll try to keep this updated as best as I can to keep everyone posted.
Training from today…
Snatch Did somewhere between 7-9 sets of 1-3 repetitions, can’t remember. Did 65kg for 2 on my last set.
Split Jerk Again did 6-7 sets of 2-3 repetitions on these, working up to 75kg x 2.
Front Squat 6x60kg, 5x80kg, 4x90kg, 4x92.5kg, 4x95kg
Finished up with some lighter assistance work, all 3x10: GHR, Seated Rows, DB Bench Press, Leg Raise.
My body is still adjusting to this type of training, so all of these numbers are still fairly light and of submaximal intensity. Mainly trying to let the joints adapt before trying to push/pull anything relatively heavy for me, so another 4-6 weeks I should start cranking it up a bit.
One thing I have learned is it’s a constant battle with technical issues/adjustments/corrections and finding the right “spots” or feel, but that’s the fun part of training for the lifts.
OKAY, I’m done rambling. I’m back!
John Cortese, CSCS
Owner, CTS Strength & Conditioning